With the explosion of smart phones, tablets, laptops, and other handheld, mobile devices both in enterprise (e.g., bring your own device or BYOD) and guest account scenarios, there is an ever increasing demand for wireless bandwidth. Conventionally, WLAN (also referred to as Wireless Fidelity (WiFi)) is a primary means of connectivity for such devices. WLAN is generally defined in IEEE 802.11 and variants thereof. Increasingly, WLANs are getting choked as demand grows exponentially with BYOD and the like. Deploying more and more WiFi/WLAN Access Points (APs) may not be a right solution in all cases as it may be either cost prohibitive or may increase chances of interference in limited spectrum or both in some cases. In addition to WLAN, such devices can utilize wireless service provider connectivity such as 3G, 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE), etc. Disadvantageously relative to WLAN, wireless service provider connectivity over 3G, 4G LTE, etc. is more costly and includes lower bandwidth. Accordingly, there is a need for systems and methods to provide network connectivity as the adoption of mobile devices and other devices continues.
Skilled artisans will appreciate that elements in the figures are illustrated for simplicity and clarity and have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements in the figures may be exaggerated relative to other elements to help to improve understanding of embodiments of the present invention.
The apparatus and method components have been represented where appropriate by conventional symbols in the drawings, showing only those specific details that are pertinent to understanding the embodiments of the present invention so as not to obscure the disclosure with details that will be readily apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art having the benefit of the description herein.